It can roll into a tube whose diameter is of merely 3 cm / 1.18 inches

Jul 10, 2014 06:23 GMT  ·  By

Flexible displays appeared in the past in some form or other, but the ones that can truly bend and twist have been few and far between, and they have been sticking to small dimensions. Now, though, LG is moving to larger form factors.

The company has formally introduced an OLED panel that has a diagonal of 18 inches and also possesses the ability to roll into a cylinder, becoming a tube 3 cm / 1.18 inches across.

The flexibility is owed to the use of a new polyamide film on the back of the panel, instead of the normal plastic. And it not only renders the screen bendable, but also thinner.

All things considered, it is the greatest advancement in the still small field of flexible display technology, and one that LG will no doubt be very defensive of for the foreseeable future.

Not that it's likely to ever hold a monopoly over the idea. Samsung has been dabbling in flexible screens for at least as long as LG has, as have others, so we wouldn't be surprised if a large format bendable panel got unveiled or previewed by Samsung before the month is out.

Nonetheless, LG has the advantage for the moment, even though the native resolution of the flexible screen is rather modest: 1200 x 810 pixels.

Not that LG intends to let sleeping dogs lie. This is, after all, only a prototype, and the company has already fielded the most important question: how long until a flexible 4K UHD panel?

At least three years, it turns out. A viable Ultra-HD flexible panel (3840 x 2160 pixels resolution) that has a diagonal of 60 inches or more will be released in 2017.

We suppose it is conceivable that the South Korean multinational electronics company will bring out smaller rollable 4K UHD panels by then, but they probably won't sell that well. After all, if you're going to pay several dozen thousand dollars, you'll probably want something big enough to cover a wall.

But that raises the question of practicality: flexible large-format displays are a great technological leap, no question, but who will actually buy them? It's not like customers will have any reason to roll their TV up or anything.

Ironically enough, even if the 60-inch flexible UHD panel debuts in three years, producing rollable TVs or monitors will take even longer, because it's not just the screen that has to bend. There are PCBs to consider, integrated speakers, the bezel, etc. The stand will probably be the only thing that can be worked around, since it can just be detached, but everything else will need a fair bit of ingenuity.

Show Press Release